Do you have a strong interest in the UK’s top private companies and entrepreneurs?

Oxford-based Fast Track is seeking a bright and self-motivated business research analyst to join our team to research companies, interview entrepreneurs and write about them for our seven annual league tables of Britain’s top-performing private companies, published in The Sunday Times.

The ideal candidate

Attracted to working full-time in Oxford for a small entrepreneurial company, you will be a graduate with two to five years’ experience in a relevant field such as the research departments of accountancy firms, consultancies, private equity, law and banking, or financial journalism/PR.

The role

Main

Use your initiative to identify top-performing private companies and diligently capture company financials, using internet sources, news articles, financial databases and company accounts

Conduct telephone and face-to-face interviews with entrepreneurs, CEOs and finance directors, and write short accurate profiles and reports from the findings

Work on ad hoc research projects, helping to improve our research techniques

Other

Help foster good relationships with the companies we research on the phone and at company visits to promote the benefits of our league tables and to encourage the directors to attend our networking dinners

Help service our blue-chip sponsors such as Barclays, DHL Express, Grant Thornton, Linklaters and Virgin Media Business

Provide support to our events team at our national networking awards dinners (up to seven evenings a year)

Some experience using financial data sources such as Companies House, Experian’s MarketIQ and BvD’s Fame, as research tools

Some experience of customer account handling

Strong IT skills, preferably Excel and Access

Career progression

There is plenty of scope for the right candidate to take on additional responsibilities within our team. These could include:

Progress to project-manage one or more of our seven league table programmes, from research to publication and awards dinner

Lead company visit meetings alongside representatives from our sponsors

The company

Fast Track is based in Oxford and was founded in 1997. It is the UK’s leading networking events and research company focused on top-performing private companies and entrepreneurs, and publishes seven annual league tables ranking them in The Sunday Times

We employ 24 permanent members of staff and 6 freelance researchers, some of whom have worked with Fast Track for over 10 years. One third of our staff are Oxford graduates

Our seven private company league table award programmes identify the most successful companies, from the fastest-growing to the biggest; and our c30 invitation-only annual awards events and alumni dinners create valuable networking opportunities for their entrepreneurial directors and our sponsors

We conduct 300 research visits each year to companies shortlisted for our league tables, accompanied by partners and directors from our sponsors, where we interview the founders, chief executives and finance directors

Regular attendees at our events range from the entrepreneurial founders of companies such as Cath Kidston, PureGym, Skyscanner and Pret A Manger to CEOs of Britain’s largest private companies such as JCB, Dyson and Warburtons